BHARTU Vs. COLLECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner impugns the order of the Assistant Collector and its affirmance on appeal by the Collector, Annexure P/1 and P/2 respectively whereby his eviction from the suit land has been ordered under section 7(2) of the Punjab Village Common Lands (Regulation) Act, 1961 (for short, the Act) as applicable to Haryana. The primary contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner is that though as per the revenue record the land in question i.e. Khasra Nos. 164 and 165 have been recorded to be in the ownership of the Panchayat, yet the mutation which forms the foundations of the land revenue record and by virtue of which the land had been mutated in the name of the Panchayat has been set aside by me in Civil Writ Petition No. 1936 of 1976 (Ram Kishan Dass v. The Financial Commissioner. Haryana and others, 1986 RRR 482) decided on September 20, 1983 and since then no mutation has been sanctioned in favour of the Panchayat qua these Khasra numbers. As per the finings of the officers below, the petitioner is held to be in possession of a part of these Khasra numbers. He, therefore, maintains that in view of the earlier order in Ram Kishan Dass's case , the land in question cannot be held to be in the ownership of the Panchayat and on that account the proceedings under section 7(2) of the Act against the petitioner stand vitiated. I find merit in this submission of the learned counsel. Even otherwise I find that the Collector in his appellate order has recorded a conclusive finding towards the end of the same that the petitioner has been recorded to be in possession of this land is a 'Ghair Maroosi tenant'. If that be so, his possession obviously cannot be held to be unauthorised.

(2.) For the reason recorded above, the impugned orders have to be quashed and are thus set aside. Since the matter as to whether the land in question is Shamilat Deh or not, has not been finally decided by the authorities concerned, it is clarified that in case the suit land is held to be Shamilat Deh and thus vested n the Gram Panchayat, then this order would not debar the authorities from initiating proceedings in accordance with law at a later stage. No costs.